GOP candidate seeks to ‘restore integrity’ to ACC
Phoenix attorney Rodney Glassman says he’s not going to be your typical corporation commissioner if he gets elected to the job this fall.
The Republican says he intends to approach the statewide office as a purely judicial role, and as such, wants the commission to adopt the Arizona Judicial Code of Conduct as its ethical code, not the one adopted last month, which he said leaves many holes for conflicts of interest to remain.
“It’s my belief that the corporation commission should be held to the same high standards as every other judge in Arizona, because, when you look at the job of the corporation commission, it’s to regulate public utilities, and make decisions based on reliability, resiliency and safety, period,” he said during a recent stop in Yuma.
Recent years have seen the resignation of one commissioner who was a lobbyist for one of the industries the board regulates, and another commissioner resurrecting a case involving a political donor.
Glassman said the judicial code of conduct prohibits judges at every level of the state court system from hearing cases involving any of their political donors or accepting free trips from anyone involved in a case they’re presiding over.
Both situations are left to corporation commissioners’ discretion in their newly adopted code of ethics, after amendments to the code barring them were voted down, he said: “That needs to change if we’re going to restore integrity to the commission.”
Glassman, 40, grew up in a Fresno, Calif., farm family, and has lived in Arizona since enrolling at the University of Arizona when he was 19.
He’s also been active with the Arizona Farm Bureau and built many relationships with Yuma-area families which continue today, he said, including those with Rep. Tim Dunn and Robby Barkley, of Barkley Ag Products who is Glassman’s honorary “Yuma County campaign chairman.”
“He’s very energetic, very curious, and that’s why I took such a liking to him,” Barkley said. “It’s because he’s so curious and wants to know the right way to go with things.”
Glassman already has a considerable history with politics, serving as a Democrat for three years on the Tucson City Council while he was still in graduate school at the University of Arizona, earning a law degree and PhD in arid land resource sciences.
He left the council in 2010 for an unsuccessful attempt to unseat Sen. John McCain, after which he moved to the Phoenix area with his family, and eventually joined the GOP. He said he initially registered to vote as an independent, but became a Democrat after being told that was the only way to get involved in Tucson politics.
He is now at the Beus Gilbert law firm, where his clients include Mobile Mini Inc., UHaul and the President’s Office at Arizona State University. He sits on the governing board for the Grand Canyon Council for the Boy Scouts of America and is a major in the Air Force reserves, having served for the last eight years.
He said his record of community service is allowing him to raise campaign funding without turning to the utilities and corporations likely to land in front of the commission.
“When I call a friend in the business community, who will never have any business before the commission, and say, ‘Hey, I need a check,’ whether it’s for $250 up to $5,000 — if they can afford it, they’d love to have someone like them on the Corporation Commission.”
Even though he sees the role of a corporation commissioner as purely judicial, he said he still wants to help connect people to others who might be able to help their cause.
“The Corporation Commission should not be all things to all people, and we need to guard against a cavalier attitude. I don’t believe it’s the commission’s (job) to advocate or mandate. It’s their job to adjudicate, based on the (state) constitution.
“And then as a commissioner I can leverage my relationships to help the mayor of Yuma, to help a Yuma County supervisor to work on a particular project. That you can do as a commissioner, but you have to be very disciplined about what’s the job, am I doing the job as written, am I staying in my lane? And (am I) letting the Legislature do their job?” he said.
There are two Corporation Commission seats on the ballot this fall: other Republicans seeking the party nomination include appointed incumbent Justin Olson, state Rep. Brenda Barton, Jim O’Connor and Eric Sloan.
On the Democratic side, there are former commissioner William Mundell and Kiana Sears, a school board member for Mesa Public Schools.